Slighlty OT: Why the Ravens might not have our undivided attention until October

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Re: Slighlty OT: Why the Ravens might not have our undivided attention until October

Originally Posted by AirFlacco

Believe it. The link I posted shows football with double the popularity than baseball for 30th straight year. There were tons of empty seats during the Os glory years and there were empty seats even when they were playing in the series, especially when the Colts were playing on Sunday.

Just a thought, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that there were 81 home Orioles games every year, and only 7 Colts games. Did you go to Colts games in '79-83'? Empty. Why? The team sucked.

Football is more popular than baseball, sure. Gun-to-head, football is my favorite sport. But it doesn't diminish how much I love baseball. This isn't "Sophie's Choice." You don't have to like baseball less just because you like football more.

Re: Slighlty OT: Why the Ravens might not have our undivided attention until October

I love the Orioles - in fact they are the only baseball team I will watch; conversely, I will watch the Texans and Jags play on any given Thursday night just because.

But let's face it - they are a lot of smoke and mirrors right now. Absent a) Davis figuring it out; b) Jiminez getting it together and c) a trade for another starter, this just isn't going to last all year. The collective production of the infield has been atrocious outside of Steve Pearce (!).

I'm not saying it can't happen, but I am definitely of the opinion that things will have to change for the success to be sustained.

Re: Slighlty OT: Why the Ravens might not have our undivided attention until October

Originally Posted by Ngata Da Vida

I love the Orioles - in fact they are the only baseball team I will watch; conversely, I will watch the Texans and Jags play on any given Thursday night just because.

But let's face it - they are a lot of smoke and mirrors right now. Absent a) Davis figuring it out; b) Jiminez getting it together and c) a trade for another starter, this just isn't going to last all year. The collective production of the infield has been atrocious outside of Steve Pearce (!).

I'm not saying it can't happen, but I am definitely of the opinion that things will have to change for the success to be sustained.

Things always change. What could get better, and what could get worse in the second half?

PROBABLY DECLINE: Cruz most likely won't have as good a second half as he did in the first. Bud Norris will probably not be a consistent starter. Someone may eventually score a run off of Darren O'Day. Steve Pearce is not really a Hall-of-Famer, is he? Miracles being worked by the bullpen (Brad Brach???) might not be as frequent.

STAY THE SAME: Guys who you can expect to be what they've been: Jones, Markakis, Chen, and Gonzalez are who they are. God only knows with Tillman; it's just as likely he could be better as worse.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: We are already seeing signs of significant offensive improvement from 3B, SS, and C. Chris Davis was never a .200 hitter at his worst. He could get hot and carry the team on his back; at the very least you expect significant improvement. Jimenez has always been a second half pitcher, and he certainly can't get much worse. Now that they have Gausman's service time and IP under control, I really expect the Norfolk shuttle will stop for him in the second half. He will get the ball every fifth day, and be a consistent solid starter if not an ace. The Tommy Hunter experiment seems to be over, and so far so good with Britton, so the closer situation should be better in the second half than the first. Then there's always the possibility of making a trade at some point that improves us.

To me, that's an overall picture of a team likely to do at least as well in the second half as they have in the first, and the first half was good enough to have them in first place. If Tanaka is done for the year, so are the Yankees. The Jays might stay in the race, but I think we have an excellent chance to make the playoffs. Whether we have any possibility of beating Oakland in a playoff series is another story.

Re: Slighlty OT: Why the Ravens might not have our undivided attention until October

Originally Posted by HotInHere

Just a thought, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that there were 81 home Orioles games every year, and only 7 Colts games.

No, it was the fact that Baltimore was always a football town and loved the Colts first and more. Bmore's interest in pro football goes back to the All American Conference. This from Wiki:

____________________
Three of its teams were admitted to the NFL: the San Francisco 49ers, the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Colts (not related to the later NFL team that would play in Baltimore from 1953 through 1983, now the Indianapolis Colts).
_____________________

A good book that has all this in detail is FROM COLTS TO RAVENS BY JOHN
STEADMAN.

Even the world series games here in the 60s and 70s had a lot of empty seats. I just walked up to the window and got good seats behind home plate. I've been to every series played in this town. The Colts were here first, left and came back. Fans had to buy season tickets w/o even having a team guaranteed til they put up the money and then BErt Bell moved a team here from Texas. O's didn't start filling up stands til EBW, the new owner from DC, said he was putting the city on trial. If they didn't fill up he was moving the team. There was a weekend series after that and it was sold out. He said Baltimore passed. It was hard to get tickets after that. Til then I got seats behind home plate for $5. Bleacher seats were under a buck but back in the 50s and 60s and most of the 70s there wasn't as much interest in baseball or basketball. We lost the Bullets to DC and nobody batted an eye. My family did its part to go to games. My cousins and I were often there rooting for Gus Johnson and Earl the Pearl Monroe and the guys.

Did you go to Colts games in '79-83'? Empty. Why? The team sucked.

Because the fans knew Irsay was moving the team, that's why. Fans started to dwindle as soon as he came here and started shopping the team all over the country. Irsay was making drunken speeches in front of the mayor at the airport and even interrupting after game radio interviews with Bert JOnes. Hed go in there cussing with the show on the air. It just turned Colts fans off and they stopped going. They also stopped going when Pete Rozelle moved the Colts to the AFC with the Browns and the Squeelers. Each owner got a cool $1M from the AFL owners. Fans here were pissed that the Packers weren't coming in or the Bears, or 49ers but were getting the Bills, Dolphins and Patriots. We had some great rivalries and games with those NFC games. Who can forget Mike Curtis hit and take down on Roman Gabriel, QB, of Rams? A lot of people turned their plans in after that and when Rosey said I made more money in football than anywhere else after he got his cool mil just for moving.

By 79 it was so obvious that fans stopped going. Also, during the 70s Irsay added pre-season games to the ticket package like they do now and many fans dropped their plans. Bmore was always hard core football but they didn't like a phony game. By 83 everyone knew the team was gone but I was at that last game yelling IRSAY SUCKS, IRSAY SUCKS with the others amongst those empty seats. Season ticket plans back then were about $150 for all the games, I think it was. Today's cheapest ticket for 1 game is almost that much.

Football is more popular than baseball, sure. Gun-to-head, football is my favorite sport. But it doesn't diminish how much I love baseball. This isn't "Sophie's Choice." You don't have to like baseball less just because you like football more.

Nope. you're right. I played baseball every day as a kid and was in organized ball up to and including hi school and made 14-16 league teams surviving cuts. That's all we did in our neighborhood but we played football too down in the city in freezing weather, rain, snow etc but great post from you and did you note all the fans at last night's game? Stadium was packed from top to bottom.

Re: Slighlty OT: Why the Ravens might not have our undivided attention until October

Originally Posted by HotInHere

Things always change. What could get better, and what could get worse in the second half?

PROBABLY DECLINE: Cruz most likely won't have as good a second half as he did in the first. Bud Norris will probably not be a consistent starter. Someone may eventually score a run off of Darren O'Day. Steve Pearce is not really a Hall-of-Famer, is he? Miracles being worked by the bullpen (Brad Brach???) might not be as frequent.

STAY THE SAME: Guys who you can expect to be what they've been: Jones, Markakis, Chen, and Gonzalez are who they are. God only knows with Tillman; it's just as likely he could be better as worse.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT: We are already seeing signs of significant offensive improvement from 3B, SS, and C. Jimenez has always been a second half pitcher, and he certainly can't get much worse. Now that they have Gausman's service time and IP under control, I really expect the Norfolk shuttle will stop for him in the second half. He will get the ball every fifth day, and be a consistent solid starter if not an ace. The Tommy Hunter experiment seems to be over, and so far so good with Britton, so the closer situation should be better in the second half than the first. Then there's always the possibility of making a trade at some point that improves us.

To me, that's an overall picture of a team likely to do at least as well in the second half as they have in the first, and the first half was good enough to have them in first place. If Tanaka is done for the year, so are the Yankees. The Jays might stay in the race, but I think we have an excellent chance to make the playoffs. Whether we have any possibility of beating Oakland in a playoff series is another story.

Pretty good analysis. I noticed you did not mention Davis. He's the x factor for me. If Cruz cools off I would hope that Davis has a better second half. Actually I hope both have an awesome second half. If they do and our BP holds up we could cruise to a division title.

Re: Slighlty OT: Why the Ravens might not have our undivided attention until October

Originally Posted by lowrider

Pretty good analysis. I noticed you did not mention Davis. He's the x factor for me. If Cruz cools off I would hope that Davis has a better second half. Actually I hope both have an awesome second half. If they do and our BP holds up we could cruise to a division title.

Such a huge oversight I edited the post. Thanks. Davis was the first and biggest thing I was thinking about in terms of what should improve in the second half; just forgot to actually write it down.

Re: Slighlty OT: Why the Ravens might not have our undivided attention until October

Originally Posted by Trackmaster

That may be true in the city and to the north, but overall, Maryland is Orioles country. It's the one team that everybody in Maryland usually agree on.

It's not even true in the city or surrounding counties. The O's play in on one of the smallest media markets and are still drawing 30k fans a game. That is really great attendance, particularly considering we are still building back up from the run of 14 straight losing seasons. Look at Cleveland, Tampa, KC, Pittsburgh, etc. We kill them all in attendance even when they are having success.

I love both teams equally, as do most Baltimoreans. You won't get a fair read on that question by polling a hard core Ravens site like this one though.

If I were to choose between an O's world series victory or a Ravens Super Bowl no question in my mind I want an O's World Series. The Ravens just won in 2012, and the O's would be a much bigger underdog story.

Also, some of the posts in this thread about TV ratings are ridiculous. Baseball is a locally popular sport, not a nationally popular sport (like football). Local TV ratings are great for MLB teams, but national ratings are never going to be great, even for the World Series. I bet if you have a game 7 World Series game involving the O's it starts to approach the LOCAL tv rating that the Ravens got in 2012 (though I am sure the Ravens still win out).

Re: Slighlty OT: Why the Ravens might not have our undivided attention until October

O's are ranked #15 in total attendance a couple of weeks ago. Nationals were #12 and Piss was #18.

O's have about 1.5M as of couple of weeks ago and are flirting with 3M fans for the year.

I always said Baltimore could support its own team w/o DC help if they had a competitive product. i could never get good seats close to home plate after they moved down town. Seats have always been high or out in outfield.

Re: Slighlty OT: Why the Ravens might not have our undivided attention until October

Originally Posted by frankpembleton

It's not even true in the city or surrounding counties. The O's play in on one of the smallest media markets and are still drawing 30k fans a game. That is really great attendance, particularly considering we are still building back up from the run of 14 straight losing seasons. Look at Cleveland, Tampa, KC, Pittsburgh, etc. We kill them all in attendance even when they are having success.

I love both teams equally, as do most Baltimoreans. You won't get a fair read on that question by polling a hard core Ravens site like this one though.

If I were to choose between an O's world series victory or a Ravens Super Bowl no question in my mind I want an O's World Series. The Ravens just won in 2012, and the O's would be a much bigger underdog story.

Also, some of the posts in this thread about TV ratings are ridiculous. Baseball is a locally popular sport, not a nationally popular sport (like football). Local TV ratings are great for MLB teams, but national ratings are never going to be great, even for the World Series. I bet if you have a game 7 World Series game involving the O's it starts to approach the LOCAL tv rating that the Ravens got in 2012 (though I am sure the Ravens still win out).

And that goes for any city except for maybe St Louis or Cinci where baseball is king. They have nothing else to do out there.